The perceptions of students, school and TAFE staff involved in V Tracks, an early intervention program for Aboriginal school students are explored in this paper. The study identifies outcomes, challenges and recommendations for future program design. Overall, V Tracks was found to improve student engagement in school and provide greater insights into the available education, training and employment pathways for students. NCVER's Building Researcher Capacity program funded this paper, which is based on research undertaken by a novice researcher in the Community of Practice scholarship program.
In this interview, Steve Davis talks with researcher Leesa Wheelahan about her report Higher Education in TAFE. Technical and further education (TAFE) institutes offering higher education degrees is a relatively new development but is expected to grow as a consequence of government policies aimed at increasing the percentage of Australians holding a bachelor degree. This project considers the provision and different perspectives of higher education qualifications offered by TAFE institutes, focusing on degrees and associate degrees.
This report considers different perspectives of higher education qualifications offered by TAFE institutes, focusing on associate degrees and degrees.
This paper was presented by Robin Shreeve at the NCVER Research on Toast seminar in March 2009. It briefly compares the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia with its equivalent in England, which is known as the skills or further education sector. The paper then outlines two key aspects of the English VET sector which might be of use to Australia: using course completion rates as a key performance measure at all levels of the VET sector; and using vocational 'foundation degrees' as a way for students to articulate between the VET and higher education sectors
In this At a glance we summarise what is known about student transfer between the vocational education and training (VET) and higher education sectors. Transfer occurs when a student who has enrolled in one sector subsequently commences a qualification in the other. Some students have completed their first qualification, but some have not. The second qualification may be in the same field of education as the first or a different one. Transfer may occur early in a person's career and be part of a period of adjustment as they refine their career goals. It may also occur at a much later stage and be related to new career directions. We find that data on transfer between these tertiary education sectors is subject to many limitations and that estimates of the magnitude of transfer in both directions vary greatly.
This paper discusses a number of aspects of this tertiary education sector: the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), which describes the qualifications offered by the three education sectors: schools, higher education and VET; student characteristics of the two sectors; a characterisation of higher education and VET; and student movement between the two sectors.
Recognition of prior learning has been a longstanding major policy initiative within the education and training landscape. This report provides insights into how people become aware of their recognition options and explores factors that encourage or inhibit access to recognition of prior learning. This may assist practitioners offering recognition of prior learning services to make changes which could enhance the experience for those people wishing to pursue this pathway.